The Comic/Anime Fan Culture in Taiwan: With a Focus on Adolescents’ Experiences

A striking phenomenon in this technology-laden and media-driven modern Taiwanese society is that fan culture has become overly active and enthusiastic. Adolescents make up the major percentage of the fan population. Whenever a famous singer or movie star launches an event, a mass of youngsters are sure to chase him or her throughout the series of fan parties that go on afterwards. This phenomenon also happens in comic/anime fandom. In August of 1995, an event of Meeting Anime Stars given in a department store across the Taipei Train Station attracted more than fifteen thousand adolescents who lined up for hours so that they could meet the artists of those famous anime stars. In recent years, ComicWorld, a two-day event for comic/anime fans to sell their own comic arts, has thousands of youngsters attending daily

The semibullvalene question: A semi-empirical molecular orbital and bond energy approach

Semi-empirical molecular orbital calculations of the Extended Ruckel and MIND0/1 type have been performed on semibullvalene and the supposed transition state for its degenerate [3,3] sigmatropic rearrangement. The results have been coupled with bond energy calculations to ascertain whether semibullvalene is homo-aromatic or is undergoing a rearrangement of exceedingly low activation energy. A preponderance of the resulting data suggests that semibullvalene is homo-aromatic --Abstract, page ii

Meditating on the Voiceless Words of the Invisible Other: Young Female Animé Fan Artists—Narratives of Gender Images

My interest in youth anime/manga (Japanese animation and comics) culture in Taiwan began three years ago when my niece, Kitty, then 15 years old, showed me some photos of her cosplay performances and manga drawings (doujinshi) by her good friends. The beautiful pictures fascinated me but in all honesty, I was stunned that my own niece and her good friends were participating in \u27those exotic activities\u27. As far as I knew, my niece and her friends were good students-smart, creative and diligent in pursuing fine art as their majors in high school. I was disturbed by this incongruity and could only pretend politely to ask her about her involvement with Cornic Market/ CornicWorld \u27, Cosplay , and Doujinshi Sales . Kitty explained a bit but grew impatient when I did not understand. She suggested that I attend a ComicWorld convention to find it was really like. I was apprehensive with concern. Kitty sensed my fear and said, Don\u27t worry. These anime fans won\u27t eat you. They are not like what the mass media present as carnaI savages, or violent, anti-social gangsters (Kitty, Personal communication, May, 24, 2000)

Financial Deepening, Banking Stability and Cross-border M&A Activity - Evidences from Emerging Countries

This study investigates the effect of financial deepening, banking stability and market structure on cross-border M&A activity in 13 emerging countries with data covering the period, 2003-2010. We show the empirical results of panel regression by sub grouping portfolio based on whether the firms are acquirer or target to cross-border M&A activity. For acquiring countries, the results show a significantly positive effect of the deepening indicator in cross-border M&A activity. Moreover, bank stability on the acquiring firms investing in the cross-border M&As shows a significantly positive effect. For targeting countries, the results show a significantly positive impact of the deepening indicator in cross-border M&A activity. A positive relation between the ratio of the amount of credit provided by banks and other financial institutions to the private sector to GDP in cross-border M&A activity is found as well. These findings imply that not only financial depth but also banking stability promotes cross-border M&A activity for emerging economies

Public Varsities To Mentor Cluster Schools - Plan will boost continuity in education system

Public universities will be adopting cluster schools to enhance continuity within the national education system

Razlike u kemijskom sastavu i antioksidacijskoj sposobnosti različitih genotipova himalajske maslinice (Elaeagnus umbellate Thunb.)

Fruit from six genotypes of autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellate Thunb.); Brilliant Rose, Delightful, Jewel, Natural 1, Natural 2 and Sweet N Tart; were evaluated for fruit quality, phenolic content, carotenoids, antioxidants, antioxidant capacity, and antioxidant enzyme activity. The fruit soluble solids content (SSC), titratable acids (TA), total carotenoids, and total phenolic content varied with genotypes. Soluble solids content (SSC) in six genotypes of autumn olive ranged from 10.6 to 18.4 %, while titratable acids ranged from 0.79 to 1.29 %. Jewel had the highest SSC and Sweet N Tart had the highest TA. Fructose and glucose were the two predominant sugars, and malic acid was the predominant organic acid found in autumn olive fruit. Jewel and Sweet N Tart cultivars had the highest sugar and organic acid content among the six genotypes. Autumn olive had potent free radical scavenging activities for 2,2-di(4-tert-octylphenyl)-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH·), 2,2’-azinobis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) diammonium salt (ABTS+·), peroxyl radical (ROO·), superoxide radicals (O2–·), hydroxyl radicals (·OH), and singlet oxygen (1O2). Autumn olive also had high activities of antioxidant enzymes including glutathione peroxidase (GHS-POD), glutathione reductase (GR), superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (AsA-POD), dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR), and monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDAR). Among the six genotypes, Brilliant Rose and Jewel had the highest levels of antioxidants and antioxidant enzyme activity.Ocijenjena je kakvoća plodova, udio fenola, karotenoida, antioksidansa, te antioksidativna sposobnost i aktivnost enzima u plodovima šest genotipova himalajske maslinice (Elaeagnus umbellate Thunb.); Brilliant Rose, Delightful, Jewel, Natural 1, Natural 2 i Sweet N Tart. Udio topljivih tvari, titracijska kiselost, te udio ukupnih karotenoida i fenola ovisio je o genotipu ploda. Udio topljivih tvari iznosio je od 10,6 do 18,4 %, dok je titracijska kiselost bila od 0,79 do 1,29 %. Najviše topljivih tvari sadržavao je genotip Jewel, a najveću titracijsku kiselost imao je genotip Sweet N Tart. U plodu himalajske maslinice najveći je udio fruktoze i glukoze, dok je jabučna kiselina dominantna organska kiselina. Kultivari Jewel i Sweet N Tart imaju najviše šećera i organskih kiselina. Himalajska maslinica sadrži spojeve koji imaju izrazitu sposobnost uklanjanja slobodnih radikala poput 2,2-di(4-tert-oktilfenil)-1-pikrilhidrazil (DPPH˙), diamonijeve soli 2,2\u27-azinobis(3-etilbenzotiazolin-6-sulfonske kiseline) (ABTS˙+), peroksilnog radikala (ROO˙), superoksidnog radikala (O2˙-) i hidroksilnog radikala (˙OH) te singletnog kisika (¹O2). U plodovima himalajske maslinice aktivni su i antioksidativni enzimi, kao što su glutation-peroksidaza, glutation-reduktaza, superoksid-dismutaza, askorbat-peroksidaza, dehidroaskorbat-reduktaza i monodehidroaskorbat-reduktaza. Od šest ispitanih genotipova Brilliant Rose i Jewel imali su najveći udio antioksidansa i najjaču antioksidativnu enzimsku aktivnost